Imagine for a second that you’re USMNT manager Jurgen Klinsmann. That means that yes, you now have the power to call up undeserving players to the national team while leaving better players at home. You can also make really questionable roster decisions or whatever else the latest criticism’s of the man are.
Now let’s say you have a young defender who is breaking through the ranks around the age of 20 or 21. He’s played a year or two in MLS and made a few impressive appearances with the national team. Now it’s time for him to take his development to the next level.
Where do you want him to do that development?
You don’t want him to stay in MLS. Remember, you’re Jurgen Klinsmann right now and Klinsmann has all but said he doesn’t want his players in MLS. When it comes to defenders, he couldn’t be more right about that stance. MLS isn’t the place to develop a defender. That’s not to say they don’t develop any but when they do it’s much more the exception to the rule.
So your player is leaving MLS and he’s going over to Europe. What kind of club do you want him going to? One of the big clubs where if he breaks into the team he can be playing in the Champions League against some of the best players in the world? Or do you want to go in the opposite direction and send him to one of the lower clubs where you run the risk that his team will be out of the top league by the following year?
The US currently has an interesting case study on this exact question now with defenders DeAndre Yedlin and Matt Miazga now playing in England for Sunderland and Chelsea respectively. Now remember, you can’t directly compare the two players. They are in very different situations and Yedlin is two years older than Miazga. Yedlin also arrived at Sunderland via a loan from Tottenham and for all we know Miazga could be in the same situation next year.
But what we can compare is the idea on which type of club would be better for the development of a defender. For starters let’s assume that both players were getting comparable playing time. Yedlin has been a starter for the past few months at Sunderland, and let’s imagine a world where Miazga was playing two out of every three games for Chelsea.
Which is the better situation for a developing defender? A team battling relegation or a team that’s usually competing at the top?
Playing for Chelsea is a far different experience than Sunderland. Chelsea are a better team with better players. They are going to control the ball more meaning a defender like Miazga will be under significantly less pressure. However in a usual year for Chelsea they will also be playing in much bigger games, in big stadiums, where the pressure is much higher. That will give him experience of playing in big matches with big crowds, but it also means his mistakes are much more scrutinized.
When it comes to Yedlin playing at Sunderland there is significantly less pressure. Sure there is a lot of pressure to avoid the drop, but the games where the most pressure is on Sunderland aren’t the ones at Old Trafford in front of 75,000 fans, it’s the ones against Norwich City with only 25,000 fans. That means when Yedlin goes against the top players in the league, his mistakes aren’t held against him. If Kevin de Bruyne gets the best of him it’s looked at like a learning experience. After all Sunderland aren’t expecting to leave the Ethiad with any points, any points they do get are a bonus.
This allows Yedlin to play in both games with a lot of pressure, as well as having the confidence that he won’t get killed if he makes a mistake against a bigger club. Furthermore, since Sunderland are in a relegation battle they will be the second best team on the field in most games. That means every game you know your goal will come under attack, which will put Yedlin into several different defensive situations a game. That will make him a better technical defender.
Another great example is former USMNT defender Jay DeMerit during his time at Watford. DeMerit was with Watford when they rose from the lower divisions of English football to the Premier League. DeMerit knew his time in the Premier League would be brief (Watford finished in last place and were relegated) but looked at that season as an opportunity to go up against the best attackers in the world and improve his game. By the end of that Premier League season DeMerit had won his first USMNT cap and had developed his game so much that he was a starter for the USMNT all the way through the 2010 World Cup.
There are certainly benefits to playing for a big club like Chelsea, but at this point I believe when a defender is still developing the technical areas of his game, the best place to do that is at a team near the relegation battle. It’s there where you get a little bit of everything, big pressure games, a chance to take on the best players in the world, and, most importantly, a lot of chances to defend.
